Lyme Disease

Betsy & Yooper's Journey

Thoughts

By the 5th week, Yooper acted like he was dying. We gave him the antibiotic, but discovered during his Lyme there are many natural options. I educated myself about Lyme and started accumulating many of the natural herbs & supplements known to treat it including the homeopathic Lyme Nosode, but I only tried a few. I was worried about the Herxing. When the bacteria/bugs die off, you will feel worse before better (Herxheimer Reaction). I could do that to myself, but hard to make my baby feel worse than he already did. During the good months, I was not sure if he still had Lyme and if he did, why wake it up? At the end, his liver was shot. We are not sure if he had a liver issue before the Lyme Disease and the Lyme & antibiotic was too much for his liver to handle or they both just were too much for his liver period. Lyme can attack organs. A few of our friends felt we should not have given him the antibiotic, and only given him natural remedies - but they were not there to see how sick he was so fast. Also some feel if a body is healthy it can avoid Lyme symptoms. After talking to Lyme patients and researching, I disagree - it does not always matter how healthy you are or how young, Lyme does not care - it is that horrific. We also learned later that Lyme is so smart it will hide when you take antibiotics, multiply and then come back with a vengeance. We think now that is what happened to Yooper when he acted so much better after first taking the Doxy, that is what it does - you think you killed it when all you do is make it worse. We were new to Lyme Disease and was never able to find anyone in Michigan that had experience to help us. That is the reason for this website, please be prepared.

Symptoms

tremors, back of neck (Lyme attacking nervous system)
fever
stiff neck
fatigue
weight loss
appetite loss
water drinking issue
vomiting
heart murmur
heart palpitations
enlarged spleen (when the spleen presses on the stomach it can cause feelings of fullness, probably why Yooper was a picky eater)

Yooper was part Siberian Husky & Beagle mix, 50lbs. We adopted him at the age of 9, but he was always hanging out at our house from the age of 3 months when his 2nd family, our neighbors rescued him from the city shelter. He was never sick and very active & energetic, jumping off of furniture and running around the house & yard. We walked fast/ran daily. Yooper ate a raw diet for many years, but preferred a cooked one. We gave him natural &/or organic grass fed protein & organic veggies. Yooper was also on tons of natural supplements and our home was maintained without chemicals. He had regular acupuncture, chiropractic & Applied Kinesiology/antiodotes technique appointments - before & after he got Lyme. Yooper was so healthy, we thought for sure he would out live Betsy's amazing age. I called him our circus boy and we loved him very much.

Week 0 - Yooper walked his normal fast 3-5 miles a day, healthy appetite & lots of energy. We camped at Ludington State

Park the 3rd weekend of September 2014. We never saw any ticks.
Week 1 - We camped at Ludington State Park (2nd week, October 2014). We took about six very small deer ticks off of Yooper. We had never seen deer ticks before. There were warning signs for deer ticks & Lyme disease in the park, the thought of him getting Lyme never entered our minds. As always, Yooper had natural repentant spray on which I reapplied.  The ticks we found were near & on his face where I could not spray the repellant, only rub on. Yooper was part Husky with very thick deep fur. We hiked miles in the woods daily, but even saw ticks on his face after spending time just at the campsite.  One day we noticed on the back of Yooper's neck his fur was so very slightly moving, tremors.   We could not feel anything when we placed our hands on him. This symptom continued on/off for the entire 8 months. He acted normal other than the tremors that were intermittent.
Week 2-4 - Yooper saw two of his Vet chiropractors for a stiff neck which continued to get worse. It caused him trouble going up stairs and jumping up on furniture. Along with several adjustments, he had laser treatments. Nothing helped. While we were massaging his neck, we found two ticks gorged & attached and an open wound where we are now thinking one tick had been. Just like when we remove dog ticks when we find them in our town, we put these ticks in a zip lock bag in the freezer. I caught Yooper drinking out of the toilet a couple of times which he had never done before.
Week 5, Sunday - Monday - Yooper would start walking fast, but slowed down at the end of our walks. He also started being picky about what he ate and did not eat as much.
Week 5, Tuesday - Yooper's eating reduced even more. I made an appointment with one of our Vets, but could not get in until Friday.
Week 5, Wednesday - I called another Vet we have used a very long time, could not get in until the next day. I called a friend's Vet and ran him in. Now he was getting lethargic. He could barely move his neck. The Vet discovered Yooper had lost 5lbs and his blood work was off the charts. I told her how he was just so very active weeks prior.  I was still clueless about Lyme Disease, but mentioned the ticks in the freezer and where we camped several times.  She did not think it was related.  That day we also noticed his water drinking issue where he wanted different water sources and different water dishes.  To make sure he never got dehydrated which he never did, I would force water down him with a baby syringe.  This issue continued throughout the month of antibiotics. I brought home different bottled water, used our house water in the bathroom that was unfiltered, my mom's well water and my work water from another town. He would like the water for one day, then not. It was heartbreaking to see him go to his water dish, stand over it, then walk away. We think like with him drinking out of the toilet, he was looking for minerals which I have read Lyme depletes. Yooper also started vomiting that would happen before and during the month of antibiotics.
Week 5, Thursday - Yooper saw his energy person who he had seen in the past. She does an allergy antiodotes technique and tested the ticks I had kept in the freezer and we swabbed the inside of his mouth. He was allergic/sensitive to both. She cleared both of these.  He wanted very little food that day. This wonderful healer continued to work on Yooper throughout the rest of his life.

Week 5, Friday - We took Yooper to the Vet we called on Tuesday. He took one look at Yooper and the blood work from the other Vet, made a comment about where we had camped and took blood for a Lyme test.
Week 5, Saturday - Yooper started to act like he felt better, we contributed it to the energy work he had done on Thursday. About mid day, we got a call that his blood work came back positive for Lyme Disease. We ran to the drug store and got the antibiotic and he started on it immediately. I started researching Lyme Disease.
Week 6 - His energy improved, but his appetite didn't and his vomiting continued. Tried giving him the Doxy with food so it would not upset his stomach, but it was hard because he would not eat. We considered switching to the homeopathic nosode for Lyme, but we were scared. He acted so much better and we could not find anyone that had any experience with Lyme.
Week 7-9 - Yooper was acting like his normal circus dog self, jumping around and wanting to walk forever. His eating was improving, but not anywhere near normal. His stiff neck went away and we started walking 1-2 miles daily. His blood work improved.
Week 10 - With his antibiotic treatment done, we started walking a fast 3-4 miles daily. I would not let him do more because he was not eating enough. Vomiting was rare. Blood work was normal except for one liver enzyme ALK Phosphatase which I contributed to a benign genetic disease Huskies can have called Familial Hyperphosphatemia.
Month 4-6 - Yooper's appetite was never the same, like before the Lyme - he would eat one type of protein for a week and then turn his head, the amount he ate was also different each day - some days & weeks it was very good. We tried tons of different types of dog & human food & treats. He was walking/running/jumping. His energy level was very high. I discovered B12 helped with the tremors, probably because of the nerve connection. I was also experimenting with magnesium. Some online say to add minerals because Lyme depletes them and other say to remove them because you are feeding Lyme. I will never know if it helped or hurt him. I called two other Vets asking if they had experience with Lyme, none.
Month 7 - Yooper's appetite worsened and he seemed to be slower.
Month 8, week 1-2 - I thought the Lyme had come back because he had all the same symptoms except for the stiff neck. I tried to find a Vet to give me an antibiotic again. Tried the homeopathic remedy Ledum, no change. Contacted a Lyme Vet in Connecticut. Blood work was terrible again.
Month 8, week 3 - Yooper started acting lethargic, started him on the same antibiotic. Within one day, he got his energy back, but his eating was still horrible. I started pretty much forcing food down him. Contacted two new healers, no change.
Last weekend - Yooper's energy dropped, I kept thinking something was wrong with his stomach, Lyme or antibiotic. We cut back on the Doxy. Tried different things to calm his stomach. Contacted one of the healers who was doing long distance work on him. She kept saying she felt he would be better in a couple of days.

Monday - I came home from work to a lot of poop in the living room. Yooper was up all nite.

Tuesday - Yooper acted even worse. I contacted the healer. She said she kept feeling he would be better the next day. By that evening he was vomiting blood so we took him to a Vet. She did an ultra sound and found Yooper's liver full of holes and a tumor wrapped around his spleen. We let him go. It had been almost 8 months since the camping trip. I read an email later that the healer had sent 5 minutes before Yooper died. She said his whole body hurt. The next day, we know he felt better, just like she said he would.

Treatment

30 days of the antibiotic Doxycycline (Doxy) 150mg a day
probiotics (two hours after the Doxy to restore the good bugs that were killed)
natural supplements to support immune system & gut
acupuncture
chiropractic adjustments
energy treatments (allergy antidotes work used on the Lyme bacterial & his organs)
magnetic device (PEFM used on his liver to remove toxins & help adrenals)
Wobenzym & Colloidal Silver to break up the biofilm & then kill it
Detox homeopathic remedies
Ledum - homeopathic remedy
B12 & Magnesium for nerve damage

Resources

Under Our Skin, film

Books

Lyme Disease and Rife Machines by Bryan Rosner - wonderful book to learn about Lyme and how to fight it
Healing Lyme: Natural Healing and Prevention of Lyme Borreliosis and Its Coinfections by Stephen Buhner

Tips

baby syringe for administrating water
high calorie nutritional supplement for appetite & calories
- Tomlyn
  - sold in pet stores & online

Lyme bacteria

Protomyxzoa; Queen - only discovered a few years, feeds off diets high in fat, not every Lyme victim has it, considered the Queen because if you can kill this you can take out the King (Borrelia Burgdorferi) easier
Borrelia burgdorferi; King - spirochete (corkscrew shaped)

Dr Stephen Tobin, Vet